A group of 50 girl students and some of their parents on Tuesday allegedly held the principal of a Delhi government school hostage for over two hours, accusing her of failing the students “deliberately” in supplementary examinations. Five people, all family members of the students, have been arrested.

The police had to baton-charge the protesters to disperse them and free principal Kanchan Jain.

The two-hour protest by the girl students began around noon on Tuesday after a few girls of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Yamuna Vihar, east Delhi, found they had failed in their supplementary examinations. They allegedly held the principal hostage and accused the teachers of giving them low marks. The protest later turned violent after the students allegedly started pelting stones at the principal’s office and at her vehicle.

The police then lathicharged the protesters and arrested five people belonging to the families of the students on charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code following a complaint by the school principal.

“The police arrested five persons, including three men and two women, for attacking the principal’s office and damaging property,” a senior police officer told IANS.

“First, we tried to convince the students to end their protest, but they remained adamant... we had to then use mild force to disperse the agitating students who attacked the principal’s office and her vehicle,” the officer added.

The students alleged that the teachers had not marked their examination fairly and had failed them deliberately.

A 16-year-old student of Class 9, requesting anonymity, said: “The teachers have failed us in three to four subjects. And this is not new here and it is going on since the last two years.”

“Today we tried to complain about the same to our principal Kanchan Jain, but she locked herself in her office and made a false complaint about us of holding her hostage,” she alleged. “We demanded that the school principal check our examination papers, which she didn’t,” she said.